1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vibration-damping support mount for attaching control electronics to an engine, and more particularly to a vibration-damping support mount used to attach electrical control components to an engine of an outboard motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
There exists in all fields of engine design an increasing emphasis on obtaining more effective emission control, better fuel economy and, at the same time, continued high or higher power output. This trend has resulted in the substitution of fuel injection systems for carburetors as the engine charge former. In the common systems used, fuel is injected into an intake air manifold. In order to obtain still further improvement, direct injection systems are being considered. These systems inject fuel directly into the combustion chamber and thus have significant potential advantages.
Direct injection, however, means that the pressure into which the fuel is injected is higher than with manifold injection systems in which the pressure is at substantially atmospheric pressure or even below. The fuel system for direct injection thus must supply fuel to the fuel injectors at extremely high pressure in order to inject into the corresponding combustion chambers when near minimum volume (i.e., with the piston near top dead center). The solenoids of the fuel injectors consequently are larger in order to operate the injector valves under the increased fuel pressure.
Larger solenoids, however, require increased voltage and current to properly operate. That is, for direct injected engines, a high voltage (e.g., 100 Volts) is required to drive the solenoids of the fuel injectors as compared to conventional manifold injection systems. Injection drivers are commonly used to develop higher voltages for driving the fuel injector solenoids. Such injector drivers are commonly mounted to the body of the vehicle in automotive applications.
An electronic control unit (ECU) often controls the timing and duration of fuel injection. The ECU thus controls the selective connection of the injector drivers to the fuel injectors so as to operate the injectors in a manner optimizing engine performance and emission control for a given running condition.